10 definitions found

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

cant

noun

1: stock phrases that have become nonsense through endless repetition [syn: {buzzword}]

2: a slope in the turn of a road or track; the outside is higher than the inside in order to reduce the effects of centrifugal force [syn: {bank}, {camber}]

3: a characteristic language of a particular group (as among thieves); "they don't speak our lingo" [syn: {jargon}, {slang}, {lingo}, {argot}, {patois}, {vernacular}]

4: insincere talk about religion or morals [syn: {pious platitude}]

5: two surfaces meeting at an angle different from 90 degrees [syn: {bevel}, {chamfer}]

verb: heel over; "The tower is tilting"; "The ceiling is slanting" [syn: {cant over}, {tilt}, {slant}, {pitch}]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:

Cant \Cant\, adjective Of the nature of cant; affected; vulgar.

To introduce and multiply cant words in the most ruinous corruption in any language. --Swift.

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:

Cant \Cant\, verb (used without an object)

1. To speak in a whining voice, or an affected, singsong tone.

2. To make whining pretensions to goodness; to talk with an affectation of religion, philanthropy, etc.; to practice hypocrisy; as, a canting fanatic.

The rankest rogue that ever canted. --Beau. & Fl.

3. To use pretentious language, barbarous jargon, or technical terms; to talk with an affectation of learning.

The doctor here, When he discourseth of dissection, Of vena cava and of vena porta, The meser[ae]um and the mesentericum, What does he else but cant. --B. Jonson

That uncouth affected garb of speech, or canting language, if I may so call it. --Bp. Sanderson.

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:

Cant \Cant\, verb (used with an object) [imp. & p. p. {Canted}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Canting}.]

1. To incline; to set at an angle; to tilt over; to tip upon the edge; as, to cant a cask; to cant a ship.

2. To give a sudden turn or new direction to; as, to cant round a stick of timber; to cant a football.

3. To cut off an angle from, as from a square piece of timber, or from the head of a bolt.

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:

Cant \Cant\, noun [OF., edge, angle, prof. from L. canthus the iron ring round a carriage wheel, a wheel, Gr. ? the corner of the eye, the felly of a wheel; cf. W. cant the stake or tire of a wheel. Cf. {Canthus}, {Canton}, {Cantle}.]

1. A corner; angle; niche. [Obs.]

The first and principal person in the temple was Irene, or Peace; she was placed aloft in a cant. --B. Jonson.

2. An outer or external angle.

3. An inclination from a horizontal or vertical line; a slope or bevel; a titl. --Totten.

4. A sudden thrust, push, kick, or other impulse, producing a bias or change of direction; also, the bias or turn so give; as, to give a ball a cant.

5. (Coopering) A segment forming a side piece in the head of a cask. --Knight.

6. (Mech.) A segment of he rim of a wooden cogwheel. --Knight.

7. (Naut.) A piece of wood laid upon the deck of a vessel to support the bulkheads.

{Cant frames}, {Cant timbers} (Naut.), timber at the two ends of a ship, rising obliquely from the keel.

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:

Cant \Cant\, noun [Prob. from OF. cant, F. chant, singing, in allusion to the singing or whining tine of voice used by beggars, fr. L. cantus. See {Chant}.]

1. An affected, singsong mode of speaking.

2. The idioms and peculiarities of speech in any sect, class, or occupation. --Goldsmith.

The cant of any profession. --Dryden.

3. The use of religious phraseology without understanding or sincerity; empty, solemn speech, implying what is not felt; hypocrisy.

They shall hear no cant from me. --F. W. Robertson

4. Vulgar jargon; slang; the secret language spoker by gipsies, thieves, tramps, or beggars.

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:

Cant \Cant\, noun [Prob. from OF. cant, equiv. to L. quantum; cf. F. encan, fr. L. in quantum, i.e. ''for how much?''] A call for bidders at a public sale; an auction. ''To sell their leases by cant.'' --Swift.

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:

Cant \Cant\, verb (used with an object) to sell by auction, or bid a price at a sale by auction. [Archaic] --Swift.

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:

Can't \Can't\ A colloquial contraction for can not.

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

216 Moby Thesaurus words for "cant": Aesopian language, Babel, Greek, L, Pecksniffery, Tartuffery, Tartuffism, about ship, affectation, affectedness, alert, angle, angularity, animate, animated, apex, argot, ascend, babble, back and fill, bank, be hypocritical, bear away, bear off, bear to starboard, beat, beat about, bend, bifurcation, bight, blandish, box off, break, bring about, bring round, cant round, careen, cast, cast about, change course, change the heading, chevron, cipher, climb, code, coin, colloquialize, come about, corner, crank, crook, crotchet, cryptogram, decline, deflection, descend, dialect, diction, dictionary, dip, dogleg, double Dutch, double a point, drop, elbow, ell, empty gesture, fall, fall away, fall off, false piety, falseness, fetch about, fork, furcation, garble, gay, gibberish, gift of tongues, give lip service, give mouth honor, glossolalia, go about, go downhill, go uphill, gobbledygook, goody-goodiness, grade, gybe, heave round, heel, hook, humbug, hypocrisy, hypocriticalness, idiom, inclination, incline, inflection, insincerity, jargon, jargonize, jibe, jibe all standing, jumble, keel, keen, knee, language, lay down, lean, leaning, leaning tower, lexicon, lie along, lingo, lip service, list, mealymouthedness, miss stays, mouth, mouthing, mumbo jumbo, mummery, noise, nook, oiliness, ostentatious devotion, palaver, patois, patter, pecksniffery, pharisaicalness, pharisaism, phraseology, pidgin, pietism, pietisticalness, piety, piousness, pitch, play the hypocrite, ply, point, pretension, put about, put back, quoin, rake, recline, reek of piety, religionism, religiosity, render lip service, retreat, rise, round a point, sanctimoniousness, sanctimony, scatology, scramble, secret language, self-righteousness, sham, sheer, shelve, shift, shop, sidle, slang, slant, slew, slope, snivel, snuffle, snuffling, soft soap, soft-soap, speak, speech, spirited, sprightly, swag, sway, sweet talk, sweet-talk, swerve, swing round, swing the stern, taboo language, tack, talk, throw about, tilt, tip, tokenism, tower of Pisa, turn, turn back, unction, unctuousness, uprise, use language, veer, vernacular, vertex, vivacious, vocabulary, vulgar language, wear, wear ship, wind, yaw, zag, zig, zigzag

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